Different massaging techniques are know, their implementation depending on the treatments to be performed. Generally, such techniques aim at exerting on the patient actions using pressure and/or pinching phenomena on skin tissue.
A large number of devices have been provided to make the practitioner's action easier. Among such devices, the use of apparatuses using a simple mechanical action, for example, by means of assemblies comprises balls assembled on a casing, possibly enabling to distribute or to simultaneously apply a cream or gel-type treatment product such as for example described in document FR A 1 225 094, has first been provided.
It has also been provided to replace this mechanical treatment with a treatment of suction of the patient's skin. To achieve this, the concerned massaging apparatuses use a treatment head connected to a suction circuit, said treatment head being formed of a casing defining an internal chamber having the suction circuit emerging into it. When the massage head is applied against the patient's body, and due to the suction generated by the suction circuit, a skinfold forms within the internal chamber, which skinfold bears against the peripheral edge of said internal chamber. The mechanical action may be exerted by rollers or balls which enable to exert, simultaneously to the suction on the patient's body, a pressure and/or displacement and/or friction action, particularly by vibration.
The solutions provided in this context result in complex assemblies, which are difficult to form, and which are not fully satisfactory in terms of results.
Massage apparatuses capable of simply reproducing subdermal-tissue-type massages, that is, comprising a continuous action on the patient, causing not only a local pinching of the skin tissue, but also a progressive displacement of the pinched area to cause a rolling of said skinfold and, this, while exerting a pressure (see, for example, EP-A-0 224 422), have already been provided.
The apparatuses described, for example, in this document, comprise a manually-actuatable casing having two parallel rollers, assembled to freely rotate or positively rotated with the casing, assembled therein. The rollers may be assembled on the casing with a fixed center-to-center distance, or are, conversely, capable of automatically moving away and coming closer to each other during the massage operation, said casing being itself connected to suction means enabling to create a depression between said rollers when the head fitted with these different elements is applied against the patient's body, to form a skinfold bearing against the roller surface.
In document EP 0 917 452, it has been provided to replace the rollers with two partition walls placed inside of the casing, hinged inside of it to be able to have a pivoting motion, said casing being, here again, connected to a suction source. Under the action of the suction, a skinfold is created, which inserts between the two partition walls inside of the casing. Due to the progress in one direction or the other of the massage head fitted with such a device against the patient's skin, the skinfold thus formed is submitted to a jerky pinching.
In the absence of action, the two partition walls are maintained spaced apart from each other, for example, by means of springs or of magnets, the pivoting of said partition walls and thus their coming together resulting from the effect of vacuum and/or of the depression generated inside of the casing.
Although such a device is satisfactory, there however appears that, due to unavoidable leaks between the lower edge of the casing and the patient's skin against which it applies, the vacuum or the depression may be rapidly broken, thus affecting the efficiency of the treatment, and particularly the pinching action resulting from the two partition walls. Further, it is not unusual, due to the depression generated within the internal chamber of the casing, to have a jamming of one or of both partition walls, thus more significantly affecting the treatment efficiency.
As a result, the tangential stimulation of the skinfold resulting from the action of the lower edge of said partition walls or flaps is thus insufficient, and the desired pinching does not systematically have the desired efficiency.
The object of the presently described embodiments thus is to optimize the mechanical stimulation inherent to the pinching.